Destiny Is Worth The Fight
by MasterDAF
Summary: John starts to realize his true feelings for Cameron, but Judgement Day is only a year away! John must teach Cameron about humanity, and learn a bit himself, before he is ready to lead anybody. Story is both pre/post Judgement Day. John/Cam, no flamers.
1. Midnight Jaunt

**A/N: Hey! If you are reading this, I can assume that you are here to check out my story. That's great! Let me point out that this is my first TSCC fan fic. I love the show so much and felt that I had to contribute to the great stories out there, and after reading some of the really good ones (such as Judgment's Dawn by King Steve), I can only hope that this story measures up. **

**Please review, it gives me inspiration to continue, and gives me an idea of what you all might like to see. (Doesn't mean it will come exactly the way you want, but I try to be accommodating without going off my original course.)**

**So, without further adieu, here is the first chapter of Destiny Is Worth The Fight**

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Midnight Jaunt

Anxious, John stood outside of Cameron's room, peering through the crack of the slightly ajar doorway as he watched her dance. While he was worried about being caught, fearful that Sarah or Derek would walk around the corner even at this late hour, he was too fascinated to pull himself away. Cameron's dance was like the pied piper's melody, and John was the hapless child who couldn't help but be entranced by it.

For a few weeks now, John had awaken about halfway through the night and tip-toed over to Cameron's room to sneak a glance at her dancing. A part of him felt guilty, as if he was invading her privacy, and that he wasn't supposed to watch from behind a door where she couldn't see him, but it was quickly pushed aside. "_She is a machine after all,_" he reminded himself, "_those kinds of problems aren't things that affect her_."

And yet, even as he thought this, he felt the guilt start to well up in him. He kept trying to logically reason with himself that she was simply a robot and that she could only imitate emotion and not experience it. But the part of him that hoped differently kept holding on, unwilling to die and fall away; it was always clawing at his conscience whenever he thought of Cameron as just a machine. No matter which way he turned, he was both the aggressor and the defender. "_This is going to tear me apart, unless I get a clamp on it soon._"

John continued to watch Cameron's graceful dance, as Cameron swept out her legs, forming an upside down "v". Then she waved her arms towards her outstretched leg, leapt shortly into the air and pulled her legs back together, landing lightly on the end of her toes. She jumped around a few times, and ended in a split.

"Her _moves are so fluid, so graceful, rather that the mechanical, stiff look I'd expect._" No matter that John had seen this countless times over the past few weeks, every time seemed new and never failed to amaze him. "_She almost looks…human…the way she dances._" He was somewhat afraid to admit to himself that while he watched her dance, she became less a machine to him, and more like an actual person.

John attempted to stifle a yawn as he watched; worried it would alert Cameron to his presence. Surprisingly, she didn't seem to notice, and continued through her routine.

"_Wow, she is so beautiful_" John thought as he stared, transfixed on Cameron's every movement. "_Argh! What am I thinking? She is a machine, I am a human; am I going crazy?_" He pondered this for a moment. "_No,_" he finally decided, "_I must simply be really tired. Yeah, that's obviously it, that's why I'm thinking this, I'm just really tired._"

Yet, as John pulled himself away from Cameron's door half-heartedly, he knew that sleep had nothing do with it. He took care to be quiet so as to make sure he didn't disturb anybody as he made his way back to his room, Cameron especially.

Twenty minutes later, after lying in bed both thinking about Cameron and trying not to think about Cameron, John's brain was finally granted a reprieve as exhaustion pulled him to sleep.

* * *

Cameron walked back into her room, quietly closing the door behind her. She had just checked to make sure John was asleep, and upon confirmation decided to analyze the situation that had just occurred between her and John. She did not understand why John kept sneaking over to watch her dance, or why he tried to be so secretive about it.

"_Perhaps John thinks I will tell Sarah that he is up late. Or maybe he is afraid of being alone in the dark._" She found this reasoning to be very logical, and make perfect sense to her calculating CPU. Yet, something kept telling her that it wasn't the answer she was looking for, although she couldn't figure out what gave her that idea.

Cameron kept with her logical reasoning however. "_After all, Future John often woke in a cold sweat, worried from the nightmares he would experience almost every night._"

Cameron wondered if John was starting to experience the same fearful nights his future self went through regularly. "_I might need to ask John about it in the morning. He can confirm for me that it is in fact the nightmares, and not some unforeseen threat._"

Satisfied with her decision, Cameron stood up and left the room. Taking care to continue being quiet, she walked over to where Sarah kept the weapons stored, and grabbed an M-4 to begin her nightly patrol of the house.

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**So, what do you think? I know the first chapter is short, but they will (for the most part) get longer starting with the next chapter. I thought about combining this with part of next chapter, but decided that I should let this one end the way it does. **

**Please review, thanks!**


	2. Nightmares

**A/N: Welcome back for chapter 2! I told you it wouldn't be too long before the update, and I hope I have been quick enough. I want to keep them coming frequently enough as to keep you readers entertained, but at the same time I don't want to spill out mindless words on a page for you. So if the update ****is a while****, it is because I am trying to make it ****worth your while****. (sorry, bad joke, ha ha) **

**To quell a few worries, I'll let you know that I am using this story for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), so nobody needs to worry about ****that**** story getting in the way of ****this**** story, they are one in the same. (I won't stop at the end of the month, though, so don't start worrying about that either. I have no end date in mind, and I plan on keeping it that way. It won't end until either I feel it has reached the ending I want or if I stop getting readers. I don't see the latter happening at all right now, and the prior is a mega, super, long way off).**

**One more point. I know that the summary specifically shows John/Cam, and I myself am a huge John/Cam fan. So let me assure you in advance, when you read the chapter don't be worried. I am not moving away from that. After about halfway through the chapter, you will see what I am talking about. I won't say anymore on that because that would spoil the chapter, making reading it useless. Then I wouldn't get reviews that I love so very, very much. And yes, I am attempting to respond to each review I get, but it does take some time.**

**Now that I have taken up probably a whole five minutes of your time that you could be reading in, I proudly present the second chapter of Destiny Is Worth The Fight!**

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Nightmares

Cameron leveled her M-4 at John's head. Sitting on the couch, there was no way he would evade in time. She was careful in her aim, lining up the sight to make sure the bullets would pierce directly through his cerebellum. This would ensure an instant, unarguable kill; as the bullets took pieces of brain matter, bone, and scalp out the exit with them John would fall, and be dead before he hit the floor. "_My, how fragile humans are._"

Yet, right as Cameron pulled the trigger, who should foil her plan by pushing John out of the way; Derek of course. He sent John stumbling over the back of the couch, seemingly angering Cameron.

Cameron smiled however, as the bullet intended for John found his uncle's right shoulder blade instead. Derek was spun around from the impact, tripped over the couch, and landed next to John behind it. John looked at Derek's shoulder, saw that it looked like a mess, and knew Derek wasn't going to be using it for a while.

Cameron walked slowly towards the couch, firing at it as she got closer. John watched, horrified, as the bullets shot through the couch, piercing all throughout his uncle's body. Derek almost started to resemble a piece of Swiss cheese, though his holes were much smaller in comparison.

Derek's limbs twitched as his face went through a spasm of emotions, mostly anger. He turned towards his nephew, and spoke in a shaky voice, "R-Run, John. R-Run n-now."

With that said, he slumped over and lay unconscious, or worse. John jumped up, fully intending to follow his uncle's dying command, ready to bolt out the door and away from this forever.

Two things stopped him, however. The first was that his mother had just run into the room, armed, behind Cameron. The second, and probably more important, was that he caught sight of Cameron's face and he froze up.

The memories he had of teaching Cameron to become more human, and act less autistic, were flooding through his mind. He was rooted to the spot, no matter how badly he wanted to run away and just cry for his uncle.

Cameron took advantage of the opportunity to slam her elbow behind her into Sarah's chest, and then spin around, planting her foot right in Sarah's stomach. Sarah was launched backwards into the wall and lay there, dazed.

She watched as Cameron started to walk back towards John, again raising the M-4 as she got near. John stood there, trying to will every fiber of his being to move him out the door, knowing he would not succeed.

"John, run. Her out while you still can," Sarah said, attempting to yell, but her words came across as simply a whispered plea.

Cameron raised the sub-machine gun, aiming at John's head, and her finger started to tense on the trigger. Sarah found the strength to scream, and shouted at Cameron with ferocity unknown to her until now.

"Take me! Let John go, don't kill him! Kill me instead!"

Cameron turned to look at her for a split second, and then turned back towards her former charge. John stood there, staring into her eyes. She noticed his fear seemed to slip away, and was replaced by a sense of calm and caring.

"Cameron, you don't have to do this," John told her softly, with as much compassion and calm as he could muster. "You are the master of your actions. Skynet doesn't control you any more, you do."

She paused, thinking his words over, and then smacked him in the face with the M-4, knocking him to the ground. Tears started to appear in the corners of John's eyes.

"Please, Cameron, just listen to me," John pleaded as he started to slowly get back up. "You don't have to do th-."

The shots from Cameron's weapon rang out, silencing John instantly. He fell back against the ground, the bullets having clearly traveled strait through his brain, as Cameron had planned.

Sarah lay on the ground, crying softly to herself as she slowly crawled towards her son's limp body. She grabbed him, and then turned to look at Cameron, struggling to see past the tears not streaming down her face.

"How could you?" Sarah asked, feeling empty, her throat tensing up due to the emotional grief that plowed over her. "You were supposed to PROTECT HIM!

"It was my mission," Cameron replied in her monotone voice. "Terminate John Connor, future leader of the resistance. Mission complete."

With that said, Cameron turned to Sarah, and aimed the weapon at her. Sarah heard the weapon discharge, saw the bullets leave the barrel, and felt them start to bite into her skin.

All of the sudden she jerked awake, lying in her bed, which was now very soaked in sweat. Her cloths were sticking to her slightly, the sheets were strewn all over the bed, and the alarm clock on her right read 7:30 AM. Sarah fell back against the covers, shaking slightly as the vivid nightmare flashed through her mind, over and over.

It had seemed so real, and as she reached for her eyes, to brush whatever was disturbing them away, she could feel the wetness surrounding them. She must have been crying throughout her dreaming.

Sarah sighed, and started to get out of bed. "_Might as well start the day, I'm not going back to sleep now._" She walked over to the bathroom connected to her room, and after stripping off the sweaty garments, stepped into the shower.

Turning the shower on, Sarah was assaulted by the sudden rush of cold water, and she shivered as goose bumps popped up all over her body. "_Well, I might be freezing, but at least now I'm fully awake._" After a few minutes, done with her shower, Sarah turned off the water and just stood there thinking.

"_Cameron wouldn't betray us again, would she_?" Sarah questioned herself, already knowing the answer. If Cameron's chip was ever compromised, she could revert right back to the killer-cyborg who's mission was originally to depose her only son.

She couldn't let that happen. They put enough at risk allowing Cameron to stay with them after her first attempt on John's life. It had been two years ago back in 2008, on John's sixteenth birthday.

They had been tracking the man known as Sarkissian, and were planning on buying the Turk from him. He had planted a bomb on their Jeep, however, so when Sarah sent Cameron to go buy John a birthday cake, and Cameron turned the ignition on the Jeep, it had exploded with her trapped inside.

Sarkissian and his crony had attempted to break in, steal some information from the Connors, and kill Sarah and John while in there. They succeeded in breaking in, as well as messing up the information Sarah had stolen on videotape. They failed in their last objective, though, because Cameron had limped in and killed the crony, while John killed Sarkissian himself.

Sarah remembered that day very well, the constant running she and John did as they tried to escape his guardian gone bad. It had ended with Cameron caught between two trucks, John advancing on her with a screwdriver to take out her CPU, Cameron professing her love to John, and John finally pulling out her CPU. The latter didn't happen though until after John had taken a moment and seriously considered Cameron's words.

Although Sarah was sure at the time that John's emotional attachment to the machine had been shattered, or at least cracked down to the core, she wasn't so certain now, and it worried her. John had become a bit of a recluse, withdrawing in to himself all the time, pondering the quickly coming future. Yet the one person-or thing- he was able to confide his worries about the future to as of recently was Cameron.

Sarah didn't like that her son wouldn't talk about it with her, and it bit at her even more that he would talk about it with Cameron. "_He has good reasons,_" Sarah tried to reason with herself. "_Cameron has been to the future, and I haven't._" She knew she wouldn't accept that as a plausible answer, and, running out of answers, she decided to think about it later. She couldn't wait too long to make her decision on what to do with Cameron, but she could take the time to eat breakfast if nothing else.

* * *

Sarah came down in a pair of sweat shorts, along with a loose gray shirt and two tennis shoes. She walked over to the kitchen, and gasped in surprise as she heard a voice address her from the living room. "Good morning Sarah. Did you sleep well?" It was Cameron.

"_Yeah, just like a muskrat in a lion's den._" "I slept good enough. What are you doing, still patrolling the perimeter?" Sarah asked.

"No, I am watching the trees outside sway in the breeze. The wind pressure is two degrees coming from the north, and three point five degrees coming from the north-west."

"Since when do you watch trees, or anything in nature unless it is hostile? Are you examining which wood makes the best rifle stock?"

"No, I am simply watching them to see them sway. There aren't any large trees in the future."

"No," Sarah agreed, "I'll bet there aren't."

They stood there in silence for a moment. Cameron continued to stare out the window, and Sarah continued to stare at her. Sarah started to feel thirsty, and was about to turn around and head over to the kitchen, when Cameron spoke.

"Does John have nightmares?"

This comment caught Sarah off guard, having experienced her own nightmare just half an hour before. "I don't know. I don't think he does." Suspicious of the terminator girl's question, Sarah asked, "Why do you want to know?"

Cameron replied, "No reason. I was just curious."

"Don't give me that," Sarah began, already feeling her anger start to flare. "You are a robot. You work by motives. There is a definite reason you were asking. What is it?"

Cameron though up a lie quickly, "At his last school, one of the girls called him 'a nightmare'. I was curious as to whether or not this meant he had nightmares."

"Oh, that's all? Alright," Sarah said, her anger fading away. "I need a coffee. If you need me, I will be in the kitchen." "_And I'll be keeping an eye on you, as well,_" Sarah thought as she walked off, eager to get some coffee in her stomach.

* * *

Cameron walked up the stairs, being careful not to make any noise as she passed by Derek's room. Derek hated waking up to anyone's alarm save his own, and being awakened would certainly anger him. And due to Derek's hate for machines, being forced to wake up early and see Cameron anywhere nearby might just send him over the edge.

She managed to slip by his room without disturbing him, and then stood outside John's door. She slowly opened the door, and noted that he was lying in the same position he had been in when she checked on him earlier. Almost everything about his position, including the way the sheets weren't ruffled around at all, hinted that he had slept peacefully. Almost. His face told something else entirely. His eyes were calmly closed, but his lips were pursed shut, and the subtle movements of his cheek and jaw bones showed Cameron that he was trying to both smile and frown at the same time, giving him quite an odd look.

Cameron decided to analyze John while he was lying in a prone state, and looked around for something to sit on. She spied a rather large Lego stool amidst all of the children's toys scattered throughout John's room, and sat it next to the bed. As she sat down on it, however, it shattered, flinging Lego pieces everywhere.

She fell forward on to the edge of the bed, and attempted to steady herself by grabbing hold of it. This would have worked fine, if John hadn't been hit by flying Lego pieces at the same time. Startled out of his sleep, he popped up and started to sit up, only to lose his balance as Cameron's hands pulled the bed down in her direction. He rolled over, rolling directly off the bed, and crashing right into Cameron.

They both fell to the floor, and for a moment John was on top of Cameron in a very awkward position, especially considering that he was only wearing a shirt and boxers.

He went to get up, but stopped when his gaze caught sight of Cameron's eyes. Her eyes were exploring his, and his eyes started to explore hers, and for a reason that neither could explain, they couldn't seem to break the connection.

John started to lean forward, ever so slightly, as if afraid that if he moved to fast the moment would end. Their faces were mere inches away from each other's, and the distance was closing by the second.

This all ended, however, when Sarah came charging through the door with Derek hot on her heels. Evidently Derek had just gotten up, because he was still pulling on his shorts with one hand as he ran in; not surprisingly, he had a pistol firmly grasped in his other one.

"What happened?" Sarah began. "I was making coffee and-" she stopped mid sentence, seeing the position that John and Cameron were in. She stood silently for a moment, staring at her son and the terminator in front of her.

Derek took a different approach. "What the hell is going on here!" he demanded, his eyes bulging a little. "John, is the metal bitch trying to strangle you? Or…" Derek stopped there, not even wanting to think about what else could have been happening.

Cameron stood up, and calmly explained, "I was coming in to wake John, and he fell out of bed."

"That doesn't explain what you were doing underneath him," Sarah said pointedly, worst-case scenarios already starting to play in her head. "_Maybe this isn't the first time this has happened. Maybe this isn't as far as John has gotten._" She hoped Cameron had a good reason for her, which could chase away the thoughts gripping her head.

"I was reaching under the bed for a tool, and he was startled, causing him to fall on me. That is all that happened." Cameron stated, sounding clear and precise.

"Is that what happened, John?" Sarah asked, ready to put this behind her and go back to her coffee. But she need to be assured first that it was an accident, nothing more.

John, still dazed after what happened between him and Cameron, just nodded his head up and down in a sign of agreement. This was good enough for Sarah, who seemed to flood relief out through her pores.

"Come on, let's all have some breakfast." Sarah said as she started to walk out of the room.

"How much do you want to bet it is pancakes?" John asked Cameron silently as Derek followed Sarah out, and retreated back into his room to finish dressing.

"I'll make pancakes." Sarah said from downstairs, her floating up to John, Cameron, and Derek, the latter of who ignored her.

"Told you," John said as he laughed, causing Cameron to smile.

John stopped, and Cameron's smile vanished back into the blank stare. "_I could have sworn that was a genuine, real smile,_" John thought, then cursed himself for jumping right back into this argument with himself again. Cameron stared for a moment, then spoke to John.

"I will leave now so that you can change."

"Sounds like a good idea." John replied.

Cameron walked out, closing the door behind her. She walked into her room, and sat down on the bed. "What happened back there?" she wondered. She decided to run a test on her CPU to see if any of her processing was being corrupted.

CPU scan beginning

**Scanning for any data corruption and/or viruses**

**Report: no corruption found**

"_Hmmm, what else to try_." Cameron thought. "_I know_."

CPU scan beginning

**Scanning through emotional simulator for corruption**

**Report: ERROR, unable to scan, processors blocked**

"_Well, that is a start at least._" Cameron sat in deep thought, wondering if she should ask John about the problem. The questions for John were adding up. She needed to ask him, but she couldn't talk to him with Sarah and Derek around. They would be suspicious of any problems she may be experiencing, and would attempt to destroy her if she proved to be much of a safety hazard for John.

All the sudden, she heard a knock on the door. John peeped his head in. "C'mon Cam, don't want to miss out on those pancakes, do we?" he asked in a sarcastic tone.

Cameron smiled back at him. "Of course not, John." She got up off of her bed and, ignoring Derek as she passed by his room, followed John down the stairs to the kitchen.

See, I told you not to fret. The John/Cam relationship may not be much to begin with, or existent at some times, but it is building. Hope this was good enough, I am a little annoyed with the ending myself, but most writers are their worst critic, so that is ok. I will update soon, hopefully I can get to updating every two days (probably won't happen though. Every three is much more realistic.)

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**Thanks to all who have reviewed so far, and please continue to feed my muse with reviews. The longer, more in-depth reviews are his favorite, but he can stomach short reviews as well.**

**(P.S.- the episode that was on last night, I believe it was episode 8 "Mr. Ferguson is Ill Today", seems to be finally bringing John and Cam back together. I hope so!)**


	3. Morning Pains

Morning Pains

John took a bite of his pancake. Thin, somewhat pasty, and without a doubt tasteless. He had become very used to his mother's cooking, and he didn't criticize her much about it. After all, her main focus in life was to prevent a nuclear holocaust, not prepare food for people at a five-star restaurant.

"Mom, if we do stop Judgment Day from happening, I don't suggest cooking as a career for you."

"Yeah," Sarah replied, "it never was my thing." "But at least we don't starve, right?"

Cameron listened to the conversation from her place at the doorway, sorting through the data of the words and their implied meanings. She had learned a lot about human behavior since she met John about three years ago, and at first she thought he was insulting Sarah and her cooking. However, the carefree way he said it, the easy way Sarah responded, and the relaxed mood between the two-led Cameron to the conclusion that John was being humorous, and meant the insult to be funny.

She decided to laugh, thinking it would be appropriate. But as the slight chuckle left her lips, John and Sarah both turned to look at Cameron, the two of them sporting confused and surprised looks on their faces. Cameron became quiet, and looked perplexed at John and Sarah's surprised expressions, tilting her head a little bit to the side. She didn't understand why laughing in the humorous situation seemed to cause a problem.

"Was it wrong of me to laugh at your joke?" Cameron asked inquisitively.

John got a hold on himself first, answering her. "No, you weren't wrong to laugh, I just didn't expect you to." He opened his mouth to continue speaking but Sarah cut him off.

"Machines don't laugh," she said curtly.

John turned towards her, his brow furrowed at her cold statement. As if this wasn't bad enough, Derek chose this exact moment to walk in.

"They don't do anything but lie, deceive, and kill," he added, supporting Sarah's comment.

John looked at Derek, knowing that he would have had a hard time as it was convincing his mother to disregard her stated opinion. With Derek now supplying support to her side, however, John knew he didn't have a chance. Argument would be pointless.

He rolled his eyes at Derek's comment, and turned his attention back to his food.

They can't be trusted at all, no matter what they tell you. They are good for the simplest of task, and should be disposed of soon after; otherwise they will be disposing of you instead."

"Well you know what," said John as he stood up from the table to face Derek, "maybe that would be a good thing. At least I wouldn't have to sit here and listen to your totally biased crap anymore."

"Now just listen here John," Derek started.

"No, you listen," John interrupted. "All Cameron did was laugh, and your acting like she tried to blow the house up or something. Can't a person laugh anymore without you going ape all over them about it?"

"That's just the thing John, SHE ISN'T A PERSON!" Derek was shouting at John now, trying in vain to make John see his point of view, and to listen to reason. "No matter what you see on the outside, inside she is just wires and circuitry, nothing more."

John stood up next to the table, silent, looking at Derek and thinking. In all technicality, Derek was one hundred percent correct; Cameron was made up of wires laced up throughout a coltan chassis and covered with synthetic flesh, nothing more. And yet, there **was** something more. Something John couldn't place, but could feel for brief moments every now and then when he looked at Cameron, or was simply spending time alone with her.

He could feel it when Cameron would ask him random questions about life, like a child still learning their ABCs, and occasionally stumbling through them. He could feel it when Cameron ate things like ice cream, which was something she really enjoyed doing, even though she almost seemed to be somewhat saddened that she couldn't taste it. He could feel it when Cameron tilted her head just slightly to the side in confusion, her computer logic unable to explain something completely emotion controlled.

He knew not what he felt, only that he felt it, and that there was something special about Cameron which caused him to experience these feelings. Unfortunately, John also knew that this wouldn't amount to a can of beans in Derek's eyes. And unless John had solid proof for Derek, which didn't seem to be a likely scenario, there was no way Derek would agree with anything that didn't name terminators as robotic murderers bent on successfully achieving their humanity extermination missions.

Therefore, with that established, John sat down at the table and went back to eating his breakfast, the fire in him cooled for now.

And now that the argument was over, or at least in the eye of the storm if nothing else, Sarah decided to walk back over to the table and serve up a few more pancakes. She gave a few each to Derek and John, and then pushed the rest onto her own plate. Sarah had hardly started to take a bite of her food, however, when Cameron walked over to the table.

Sarah watched as Cameron took a look at each of the open spaces around the table, her gaze quickly passing over the ones near Derek, and slowing down on the ones around John. Sarah could just imagine that by the way Cameron was choosing her seat, the faster she looked, the less likely. And this couldn't be truer; after all, she sure wasn't going to voluntarily sit next to Derek after his word choice about her, unless she was planning on knocking him out.

Sarah wasn't surprised in the least as Cameron took her seat next to John, smiling at him as she sat down. While Sarah could understand Cameron choosing to sit next to John, her mission being to protect him at all cost after all, but the morning's events made her feel a little odd about those two being too close together.

It wasn't as if she was worried that John would forget that Cameron was a machine that ate at her. Sarah didn't doubt John at all on that subject. The problem, however, was that John was still a teenage boy, prone to making the same reckless actions all boys his age did; while he might know what Cameron was underneath, on the surface she still appeared to him as a very attractive girl who had no problem spending time with him. And that did worry Sarah, plenty.

Cameron started to reach towards the steaming plate of tasteless pancakes on the table, when Sarah stopped her. "Cameron, I need you to go through the weapons again, and make sure they are all fully functional and combat ready." "Mom," John started, "she just sat down, can't that wait till later?" John gave Sarah a somewhat pleading look.

"Like it matters that 'it' just sat down, the metal doesn't need food anyways," said Derek, mostly for John's benefit.

John felt the anger from a moment ago bubbling right back up again. "You think you can talk about her that way, do you?" thought John as his muscles tensed in defiance to Derek's statement, and readying for the sure argument to come.

"Cameron saw him tensing, and in an attempt to keep him from having another row with Derek, lightly placed her hand on his wrist. As expected, all traces of anger in John evaporated instantly, to be replaced with silent surprise, evident through the slight blush on his face (which he futilely hoped Cameron didn't notice).

Cameron spared a soothing glance towards John, and before John could reply Cameron spoke. "It's alright John, Derek is correct. I don't need a lot of food to stay functional. But the guns will need to be checked if they are to remain functional." With that said, Cameron stood up and walked out of the kitchen towards the living room as Derek smirked, trying to hide his victory grin and failing.

Not wanting to have to look at the smug look on Derek's face anymore, John quickly finished his food, then walked up the stairs and into his room, slamming the door closed behind him. The wall shook at tad as the door hit its frame, but at the moment John didn't care one bit, too caught up in his anger and frustration to notice. He pulled on his headphones, and started to play some music. "Maybe I can put the music up high enough that I don't have to hear myself think; escape from all of these ideas bouncing around in my head," John muttered to himself.

He closed his eyes and lay down on his bed, letting the music carry him away; his lips moving silently in tandem with the words thrumming in his ears. And of course, since he couldn't hear himself think, he fell asleep and his thoughts made themselves noticed in his dreams, instead.

He began to dream about what his life would be like if he wasn't humanity's fated savior, and Judgment Day wasn't a possibility. If he could wake up, and his only worry be the math homework he hadn't finished the night before. If he didn't have to learn tactics for leading me against machines, or even think about the machines at all. If he could simply get up and go downstairs and see him mom cooking. She would turn around and yell "Surprise! There are no such things as Skynet or terminators! Not, how about some pancakes?"

Unfortunately, thinking about the terminators (and more importantly, them not existing) put him right back on track with the one subject he had hoped he could avoid thinking about, was desperate to avoid thinking about. Cameron. He couldn't imagine living without ever knowing her. And yet at the same time, out of everything and everyone he had to deal with, she was probably the greatest reason for the stress he was currently under siege from. Memories of Cameron, both good and bad, started to flash through his head.

Cameron talking to him on his first day of school, making him think he was special.

Cameron deliberately stopping him from talking the suicide girl out of jumping off a roof at school.

Cameron rescuing him from Cromartie (countless times).

Cameron being awkward at school, making him feel embarrassed and like an idiot.

Cameron eating the chip he offered her the day they met.

Cameron shooting at him after her malfunction from the Jeep explosion.

Cameron choosing not to shoot John, and taking his hand a she got out of the thermite doused car.

Cameron staring at him from his doorway as he lay there listening to music, oblivious.

"Wait a minute," John thought as he hurriedly sat up, blinking a few times to make sure he had really awakened. His eyes had opened as he dreamt, and incorporated what they saw into his dream. And as he had dreamt, Cameron was standing at his door, staring silently at him.

Upon seeing John awaken, Cameron gingerly opened his door, walked in, and closed it just as softly. John watched, almost hypnotized, as she came closer to him, and sat in the chair next to the computer, keeping only a few yards between the two.

"John," Cameron started, "we need to talk."

"About what?" John asked curiously, his heart already beating a little faster being alone with Cameron. She replied with one word.

"You."

* * *

**Man, am I happy I finally had time to post another chapter. I thought I would never get around to it! What with scouts, and homework, and all kind of other things…but I digress. At least it is out now, and I can get back to trying to keep some kind of schedule with it. Now this is going to sound kind of bad after making you readers wait so long for the update, but the next few updates are definitely not going to be within a few days of each other. I can shoot for perhaps once a week, but not any sooner. With school starting to wind down a tiny bit, though, it ought to get a little looser, and the work load a little easier to manage.**

**I have to say though, am I glad that the show is finally back on. Waiting those few months was like waiting for Christmas in May, it never seems to get any closer. The first two episodes to air this month (2/13 and 2/20) weren't what I would call the greatest in the world or anything, but they were good nonetheless. After all, the team has to make sure Sarah is okay before moving on to bigger things. And who knows, perhaps now that Riley has shown weakness, John will leave her and stick with Cam, which is who he should have been with all along.**

**Remember, posting a critic or an opinion (not flame) about the story so far is definitely a good idea, and I challenge every single person who reads this chapter to reply. As I have said in the past I really like longer, in depth critics, but if everyone who reads submits something, than small critics won't be frowned upon for a while. If you don't have the time to post anything long, I understand, but by posting in depth opinions (and this goes for any stories you read) you are helping the author advance the story to greater heights, which makes it more enjoyable both to write and to read. **

**Thanks to all the loyal readers who are standing by and replying, your helpful opinions keep me going when I have writers block (or a case of "I feel like doing anything but writing right now" syndrome). **


	4. Explanations

A/N: Sorry this update has taken so long, but I'm sure you all know how things can get pushed back. I've had so many things going on, and when things get a little hectic, the next thing you know you are running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Still, I do hate waiting so long to get an update posted. How long has it been since I last posted, a few months? I've finally got it up however, so here it is, chapter four. Enjoy!

Explanations

"What do you mean we need to talk about me?" John asked quizzically. A puzzled look slipped onto his face. He hadn't expected Cameron to come knocking on his door with questions this morning, and certainly didn't know what it was that lead her to believe she needed to question him.

"Your behavior these past few days has been very erratic, and staying up late isn't helping you at all either," Cameron replied.

"Staying up late, what is she…oh," John thought, as he realized his nighttime ventures were no longer (if ever) secret. Cameron must have found out, one way or another, about him watching her dance at night. He decided he would try to play it off, though.

"What are you talking about, I haven't been staying up late at all." He tried to sound surprised, but he could feel the anxiety leaking into what he was saying. John knew she would be able to detect it, so he switched tactics and let some annoyance seep into his voice to cover it. Hopefully, he could end this quickly before Cameron had the chance to hit him with solid proof. "Just because you can stay up half the night doesn't mean I can," John told her. "I'm not a freaking machine, after all."

John waited a moment, holding his breath, hoping he had pulled her attention away from the subject at hand. It worked. He watched as Cameron opened her mouth to reply, then stopped and closed her mouth without saying anything.

Unfortunately, his plan worked a little too well. Cameron proceeded to blink a few times, almost as if she were confused, and then promptly turned and walked out of John's room, leaving him all alone.

"Shoot, I didn't think she would leave." John scolded himself for his callous retort he gave Cameron. "I just don't get it, what is with her? She almost seemed to be offended, but she can't feel anything, so that's impossible. "_Well_," he began to think, "_maybe she can…_" He stopped himself right there. "No, don't even start thinking that. No matter what I might imagine every now and then, she can't feel anything. All of her emotions are simulated, and used to advance mission goals, nothing else. _"Yeah, but…_" "No, no more. I've got to stop thinking like this over and over. Derek's right, she is a machine.

With this disheartening conclusion drawn for the moment, he headed on downstairs to find out what everyone else was doing, and what the plan for the day was.

"Reese, how many times do I have to tell you not to start things while we are eating?" Sarah asked Derek angrily. She was cleaning the dishes from breakfast, and had already put away the leftover food. "John didn't hardly even touch his pancakes, Derek. How is he ever going to lead humanity with you jumping down his throat? I agree with you about Cameron. He is keeping secrets with her, confiding in her rather than us, and that has to change. Putting it so blatantly in front of him, however, will just close him down."

Derek stared at her from the kitchen table, disbelief radiating out from him. "Direct argument might cause him to ignore everything we say, but we have to act now. Sarah, the longer we let him keep that thing around, the more attached he will get to it. These past couple of years, he has only gotten closer to it. If he gets stubborn and ignores us, we have to push that much harder. For John's good, we have to make him see some sense.

Sarah wandered on over to the table and sat down, opposite Derek. She placed her elbow on the table and rested her chin on her fist, then stared at the wall as if the answers to all of her problems were hidden there. Her eyes washed over the wallpaper as her brain rushed to think of the right answer to Derek's argument. The problem was that both sides of the argument had merit, and neither was entirely wrong.

Derek, agitated by Sarah's silence thinking it an attempt to ignore him, began to speak. "Sarah-" She cut him off with a wave of her hand. "I'm just not sure what to do, Derek." She sighed, turning her eyes towards Derek. He could see the struggle she was going through reflected in them. He saw her want to build John into a strong independent leader, but at the same time he could see her wanting to shepherd him as well. The two ideas clashed entirely.

"I know I will have to let him go soon enough and allow him to take his path the way he sees best, but how soon is soon?" Sarah asked. "How will I know when he is ready? He's headstrong and has a good gut-feeling on things, just like Kyle did." She turned away from Derek again. "Who knows, against my better judgment, maybe he is actually right. Maybe Cameron can be trusted-"

Derek interrupted her, "Sarah, Kyle was killed by one of those metal bastards. You'd be doing his memory an injustice trusting one of those machines. Its bad enough we keep one around for the heavy lifting. I'd as soon take one on myself rather than task her with taking care of it. Unlike us, she can malfunction, and then we've got twice the problems to deal with."

"I'm not saying she will stay for the long haul," Sarah began, "but she is more of a help then a hindrance at the moment. You weren't here when John and the T-800 got me out of Pescadero State Hostpital a few years back. I didn't trust that terminator any more than I trust this one when I first met him; by the time he sacrificed himself to destroy the evidence of his existance however, he had proven himself worthy of our trust. He risked termination to protect John and I; without him we would have been killed."

Sarah smiled fondly as she remembered Uncle Bob trying to learn phrases from John while they worked on the vehicle Enrique gave them. "As long as Cameron doesn't begin to influence John's decisions in any major way, we're keeping her with us." Sarah got up and started to walk back towards the sink.

"Sarah, you are making a big mistake here. All that thing does is-" Sarah turned around and fixed her gaze on Derek. "I don't wan't to hear it Reese; I've made my decision, and that's it.

Derek pushed his chair back from the table, and slowly stood up. Looking down at Sarah, he spoke. "After all you have been through at the hands of Skynet and its minions, your one of the last people I would expect to defend one of them." When Sarah didn't respond, he continued, "Kyle would be thoroughly disappointed, I know I am."

Shaking his head side to side, he turned away from her and walked out of the kitchen towards the living room, leaving Sarah alone at the table.

John got to the bottom of the stairs as Derek walked past, grumbling (as usual) about Cameron. He gave John a quick look, then walked past him and headed upstairs towards his room. John entered the kitchen and, seeing Sarah sitting at the table, grabbed the chair next to her and sat down. She looked over at him, and a smile broke out along her face.

"I'm glad to see you didn't decide to hole up in your room all day," Sarah told John, turning to face him. "Actually," John started, "that's what I came down to talk about."

"Oh?"

"We haven't seen Cromartie in weeks," he continued "and we need to quickly collect more intel on Skynet's progress. The longer it takes us to stop it, the harder it might be. Besides, we only have about one year left before it decides we're a waste of space here on Earth and tries to wipe us off the map."

Pausing to take a hard look at John, Sarah could see how serious he was about this, and she felt pride begin to well up inside of her. It was good knowing that despite everything else going on, John could still bounce back and face destiny. Mainly his looming destiny.

"Alright then," Sarah replied, "I've already got our next target picked out." She got up and walked out into the living room, then returned a moment later carrying a large plastic bin in both arms. Sarah popped the top off, and began taking out papers and laying them on the kitchen table.

"What is all of this?" John asked as he grabbed one of the thicker papers and unfolded it, revealing a set of detailed building schematics. "What buildings are these to?" He stopped thumbing thru the papers and looked at Sarah. "What are you planning?"

Without answering, she grabbed a newspaper from the stack and laid it in front of him. "What-" he started to say until Sarah cut him off, pointing at the headline of the paper. It read: **CYBERDYNE SYSTEMS BUYS OUT KLEY INC., EXPANDS ROBOTICS DEPARTMENT**. Right under the headline on the cover was a picture of a Cyberdyne higher up at an interview, the different head employees of the Robotics department sitting in chairs behind him with forced smiles on their faces.

"So," John started, "not only has Cyberdyne rebuilt itself, but it is still looking into advanced robotics. That's just great," he exclaimed sarcastically, "I guess blowing up their building one time wasn't enough to convince them to leave it alone."

Sarah gave him a grim smile in agreement. "What we are going to have to do is get in and see what their new new research encompasses. Find out if any of it has to do with Skynet, and if it does we'll need to shut it down…again.

John gave her a questioning look. "Why is it that when you say 'see what their new research encompasses' I get less of an idea of us studying it, and more of us walking in with guns raised?"

She smiled and patted John's arm. "It's because you're a Connor, and destroying Cyberdyne is one of the Connor traditions." John grinned at the idea of all his ancestors showing up and taking a stab at Cyberdyne, entertaining the thought for a moment before letting it go.

"Seriously though," John said, getting back to the task at hand. "The last time we entered Cyberdyne, we ended up being marked as terrorists. With only one year left to stop Judgment Day, the last thing we need is an FBI squad tailing our every movement the rest of the way."

Sarah was impressed with what John had come up with on his own so far, bringing the problems from before up to the front so as to put extra weight on not repeating them. He wasn't General John Connor yet, however, and because of this he missed a few important points she would have to cover for his benefit.

"I've already started on a plan," she told him. "It involves your hacking skills and Cameron's infiltration; in this way we can both stay out of Cyberdyne itself while at the same time gathering the data that we need. Afterwards we can analyze the data for our answer and, depending on the outcome, we can act accordingly.

Sarah paused for a moment, turning her head left and right all the sudden, a curious look on her face. Her short, dark hair bounced as she looked back and forth from the living room to the kitchen, and then back again. "John," Sarah asked, "do you know where Cameron is?"

He remembered Cameron leaving him, seemingly confused, hurt, and angered at his blatant statement, insulting her for being an it… a machine. The guilt grabbed hold of him as he answered, replying "I'm not sure where she went." Whether or not Sarah noticed, she told him to go get Cameron anyways. "The sooner I can tell her whats going to happen, the sooner we can go get started."

Almost as if on que, Cameron appeared in the kitchen doorway, keeping an eye on John but not moving any closer or in any kind manner at all towards him. Quite the oppostie in fact, her eyes seemed cold as they swept over John, then warmed up some as she turned towards Sarah.

Sarah, either oblivious to Cameron's disposition towards John or choosing to stay out of it, gestured for Cameron to come join them at the table. Once Cameron had taken her seat, noticeably further from John than the last time they sat at the table, Sarah started to brief them on their mission and its objectives. "Ok," Sarah began, "here's the plan…"

**Again, I am so happy I was finally able to get this posted. And as I have said since chapter 1, I will continue to write (even if it does take a while between postings). Please continue to review the story so far, and no flames. Thanks!**


	5. Mission Parameters

Mission Parameters

"We all recognize that there is a great chance that Cyberdyne is currently working on revamping the Skynet project. What we need to know is how they plan to do it, and why they might continue this massive project. They already lost Skynet in its beginning stages, and that cost them dearly. We need to know why they would risk bringing this back out again, after their previous attempt with it, and what their incentives may be. What we need the most; however, is solid proof. Proof enough to open the eyes of all the ordinary people before it's too late. Proof that will be able to crush Skynet once and for all; burying it forever in its own technological rubble."

"But it we destroy Cyberdyne again," John began, "won't that destroy all of the evidence along with it?"

"Exactly," Sarah replied. John raised his eye brows questioningly. "We will have to use a much more stealthy approach this time, something that doesn't involve even a single brick of C-4." "What do you have in mind?" John asked.

"Since we are marked as terrorist for destroying Cyberdyne previously, the two of us can't go in there without law enforcement getting called in the minute we are recognized. Cameron, on the other hand, could go in since she wasn't with us."

Sarah turned and eyed Cameron. "We'd be putting a lot of trust in you, so if you screw this up then you might as well count yourself as gone."

"Wait, Mom, you can't really mean that," John asked Sarah, surprised at her ultimatum. He understood that this was important, but to threaten removing Cameron from their group seemed somewhat overboard. Besides, they needed her…or at least, he needed her.

"The last thing we need is a screw up on something of this magnitude," Sarah told John, keeping her eyes locked on Cameron. "Like you said a few minutes ago, we don't want the FBI following us around."

Cameron absorbed Sarah's words, and could see from the levels in her voice that she was entirely serious. Any variation from the plan on Cameron's part would come at a steep price. "I understand," Cameron told her.

"Good," Sarah replied, then returned to the papers she had strewn across the table.

"Cameron will go in with the guise of a hopeful business partner. She will talk with an executive who thinks their job is important, and then find a reason to slip away out of sight. From there she can find where they keep the information we need, jack all of it off of a computer, and return to the representative. To finish it all off she will turn down their offer, bring us the incriminating Skynet data, and John can proceed to hack all of it on his computer."

"That sounds pretty good," John started, "but how will Cameron keep the Cyberdyne rep at bay while she is snooping around?"

Sarah grimaced. "That's going to be the hardest part. In order to keep the rep occupied and make the act seem more realistic…I'm going to have Derek go with her. They will pose as a couple-"

"Are you kidding me?" John asked, jumping up out of his chair and staring at Sarah bewilderingly. "Derek? We are talking about the guy who just marched upstairs moaning and complaining about Cameron, right? He'll swallow his gun before he pretends to enjoy her company.

"John's right, Derek may prove to be too unstable to successfully complete this disguise without causing a problem," added Cameron as she quickly shot John an icy look, then turned back towards his mother. Sarah found it strange that while Cameron claimed that she agreed with John, her tone seemed to say the exact opposite, as if agreeing with him had all the sudden become antithetical for her.

"_It about figures_", Sarah told herself. "_Either they seem to be getting too close to each other, or they are about ready to rip the other's head off, never somewhere nice in the middle._"

"Listen you two;" Sarah told them, "Derek will do it because it is necessary. Even he knows personal issues have to be cast aside for the good of the mission. Now, I've already set up an appointment for 7:30 tonight, so you have until then to be ready. I'm going to go clue in Derek, and make sure he will be all set for this.

A smile started to play out across Sarah's face. "He needs to wear a business suit, and my gut instinct tells me he hasn't ever worn one in his life." She turned to Cameron. "And on that note, you are going to need an evening dress. Nothing too flashy or expensive; John can help you pick it out."

John's eyes widened, "I don't know anything about dresses…"

"Well," Sarah told him, "since she's a robot, I doubt she does either. Just find her something nice to wear; I'm pretty sure she won't object to anything."

Leaving it at that, Sarah walked out of the living room. John waited until he heard the stairs creaking, then turned to look at Cameron. She was looking away from him, and he felt his earlier guilt begin to worm its way back inside him. _"I guess I should apologize to her,"_ John thought. _"I didn't think she would take it the way she did, but that's my fault for assuming such to start with."_

He began to open his mouth, when Cameron suddenly stood up from her place at the table. "Let's go" she said, and without another word she headed outside towards the truck, leaving John behind at the table, alone.


	6. Prepping For The Big Night

**A/N: Sorry for taking a year to update. I guess this just goes to show that life is constantly moving, and you never know what is going to grab your attention. It is always ready to throw you a curve ball. **

**So, without making you trudge through anymore of my rambling author note, lets hear a round of applause for the return of Destiny Is Worth The Fight! Whooo!**

* * *

Prepping For The Big Night

John followed Cameron outside, grudgingly walking behind her towards the Jeep. He wished he could apologize to her for his earlier words, but he felt like she didn't want to speak to him based on her crisp order a moment ago. He had opened his mouth to explain that he was wrong to push things off on her, but she had cut him off completely.

They got to the Jeep, and Cameron circled around back to make sure there were at least a few guns and ammunition stored in the trunk in case of an emergency. John climbed into the passenger seat and buckled his seat belt, then played with a frayed piece of cloth sticking off the belt. He couldn't figure out how to make things right between him and Cameron. No matter what was going on, he always seemed to find a way to accidentally screw things up and upset her.

Cameron, having decided there was enough in the way of munitions placed inside the trunk, walked back up to the front of the vehicle and slid into the driver's seat. She started the car, pulled out of the driveway, and started to take the two of them in the direction of the mall.

John looked out his side window and watched as they passed by houses and shops on the route. He had grown to recognize the neighborhoods and local plazas around his house, and couldn't believe that in less than a year it would all be replaced by a desolate landscape of twisted steel and lifeless ghost towns. He was determined to stop this from becoming a reality. If they could dismantle Skynet before it had a chance to become operable and vengeful, then humanity across the globe could be saved a devastating blow. He would stop it, he had to stop it.

'_If I could just get Cameron to stop taking everything personally, I could eliminate half the stress distracting me from stopping Skynet._' He would have to find a way to get Cameron to forgive him. Even then, he wasn't so sure he could explain what was going on in his head to her, not yet.

Just then Cameron surprised him, turning to John and addressing him. "Where do you think we should go to find an appropriate evening dress for the mission?"

Caught off guard, John had to think a moment. Even if he was expecting that question and had seen it coming, he had no idea how to answer. He had never had to worry about where girls bought their dresses from, ever. Rather than turn, shake his head and give Cameron a blank face, John tried to figure it out through the process of elimination.

"Well," he started, "how many stores does the mall contain?"

"One-hundred and thirty seven, plus eight kiosks stationed through the mall at the major intersections," Cameron replied.

"Alright, lets just figure out how many stores in there definitely don't sell dresses or upscale women clothing, then remove those from the store total and check out the remainder when we get there," John offered. It seemed like a solid enough plan, and it wasn't like they would risk being shot up if the plan didn't work perfectly, unlike the usual mission risks.

"That seems efficient," Cameron replied curtly.

With the question settled, she returned to watching the road and ignoring John. This continued for another ten minutes as they drove down the road, the Jeep bouncing every now and then and the guns in the back clunking together each time the car hit a bump. Finally, with the silence screaming in his ears, John could take it no longer.

"Stop the car," John said aloud.

"Why? We are almost there," Cameron replied, continuing to drive towards their destination.

"Cameron, please stop the car, " John repeated.

Cameron turned the car off of the pavement and onto the side of the road, then parked them next to an old oak tree with rippling bark and slightly rustled leaves. They sat there in silence for another moment, letting the other cars behind them go around. "What is it John?" Cameron asked. While John could see that she wasn't angry with him for slowing them down, she didn't seemed especially pleased that they were sitting on the side of the road within view of the mall itself.

John spoke, "I want to talk to you about what I said earlier today, and apologize. When I called you a-"

"-Freaking robot," Cameron finished for him in his own voice. She started to glare at him as she said it.

It stung hearing her repeat his insult, especially in the same way he had told her that morning. '_I deserve it though, I never should have said it to her in the first place._'

"Yeah, that," John responded. "The truth is, I have been staying up and watching you dance at night. I don't quite know why, but I can't help it. I'm sorry I called you that this morning; I've just been feeling so stressed out lately, and it has been spilling over into everything else." John cupped his hands over his nose and mouth, taking a deep breath, then wiped the rest of his face with his hands. "I'm so worried that I won't be able to stop Judgment Day from happening, no matter what I do. People are going to die, and it will all be because of me."

John crossed his arms over each other and turned away from Cameron, not noticing that her angry veneer had fallen away and been replaced with a more concerned one. "Mom and Derek are growing suspicious of my behavior and continued defense of you, and meanwhile you think I'm a total jerk every time I do anything around you. It's like everything is working the exact opposite of the way it should be...I keep trying to fix things, but...I don't even know anymore, I feel so lost..."

Turning back to look at Cameron, John was surprised to see she had moved closer to him; close enough that her face was just a foot away from his. She stared into John's eyes, her chocolate brown eyes seeming to melt into his hazel ones. "You will have many who step up to help with your problems in the future, John."

"Will you be there to help me when I need you, Cam?" John asked, the blood thumping in his ears as he slowly leaned towards her.

"Yes," Cameron replied, the warm, inviting glow having returned to her presence. The icy persona John had felt directed towards him earlier was gone, replaced with the encompassing feeling of compassion.

He felt like everything had been leading up to this. They were both being open to each other again, and while John hadn't told her everything bumping around in his head, he had started to express what was truly troubling him. And she was trying to comfort him. '_I guess miracles do happen,_' John thought happily to himself.

As Cameron stared into John's eyes, his gaze swept back and forth between her eyes and her lips. The blood pounded so powerfully in his skull that John could barely hear himself think, let alone hear any other noises going on outside his body. Unable to resist any longer, John quickly leaned in towards Cameron's face, his eyes closing as he prepared to seal the blissful moment with a kiss...and was stopped by his seat belt, his lips just mere inches from hers.

He wrenched his eyes open and looked down, horrified, at the seat belt catch that had ruined the perfect moment. John could feel his face flush as he looked back up at Cameron. She favored him with a smile, then turned and moved the car back into traffic. Realizing the moment was over, and that there wouldn't be a chance for an instant re-do, John leaned back in his chair and looked out at the fast approaching mall. '_Well, I rejoiced too soon. But if nothing else, at least the rift between us is bridged now._'

John continued to let his mind wander as the two of them parked the Jeep in the parking lot and exited, making their way towards the mall entrance in silence.

Sarah had finished getting all of the dishes rinsed and thrown into the dishwasher, as well as spreading her mission data into a more organized chaos, by the time Derek was starting to make his way back downstairs. She wiped her hands on a towel near the sink, then left the kitchen so that she could catch Derek before he wandered off somewhere.

"Derek" Sarah called, pulling his attention off of the gun he was slipping into his waistband. His head twisted up towards her, and she could see that he was still holding on to their conversation from a few hours ago.

"What?" Derek snapped, eying Sarah questioningly. His tone became slightly more curious. "Are you ready to agree with me, and admit I'm right about the robot?"

"No Derek, that isn't my plan. Sorry to disappoint you, but there are bigger fish to fry at the moment," Sarah responded. "Big metal fish who are looking to expand their waters very quickly."

"Wait, what are you talking about?" Derek asked, his eyebrows furrowing. His anger and unhappiness from a moment ago vanished, replaced with the calm disciplined thought process of a soldier.

"Follow me," Sarah told him, and led Derek back into the kitchen. Walking over to the table, she started sifting through the pile of data, looking for the newspaper from earlier.

Derek followed Sarah in, and watched her sort through the pile of paperwork for a moment. "What are you looking for?" he asked her. He started to reach towards the pile, fingering through a few pages of accounting and bank statements, then pulled his hand back. Whatever it was Sarah was looking for, she would definitely find it faster in this mess than he would. He grabbed one of the chairs and, flipping it around, sat down and leaned forward, focusing on Sarah.

"I had a newspaper here earlier...now I can't seem to...wait, here it is."Sarah finally drew the newspaper from the stack, and handed it to Derek. He eyed it for a moment, taking in the title and the pictures accompanying the article.

"Hmm, so I guess Cyberdyne wants to do a little bit of expanding, huh?" Derek said, his eyebrows relaxing as he continued to read the rest of the article.

Sarah walked over to the cabinets near the refrigerator and pulled out a small glass cup, then filled it up with water from the sink and joined Derek at the table. and "Do you recognize the name Kley Industries from anything in the future?" Sarah asked as he looked up from the paper.

Derek looked back down at the article and skimmed over it again. "No, I don't think so. We knew that Skynet grew from a collection of groups, but we had no idea who they were or what brought them together." He put the newspaper back down on the table, and looked at Sarah. Shaking his head back and forth, he said, "To tell you the truth, I don't know if Kley will be the next piece of Skynet's puzzle, or just the next failed company buy-out."

He started looking over some of the other papers, and picked up a few sheets of bank statements while Sarah mulled over what he told her. "Either way," he said, "it probably wouldn't hurt to check it out. For all we know, this is the lead we've been looking for."

Sarah took a gulp of her water. _"Great. So Derek doesn't know anymore than we do about the Krey and Cyberdyne combination. So much for filling in the blanks..."_

"So you are sure that Kley and Cyberdyne didn't play any part in the final forming of Skynet?" Sarah asked, prodding Derek to keep thinking. "Not a single thing, even something small? After all, it only took one busted T-800 chip and the remnants of a robotic arm to rebuild Skynet after our first encounter.

_She would never forget that day. The terror of the menacing robotic Terminator chasing her around the electronics factory. Kyle shoving an explosive into its torso, killing himself in order to try and destroy it. And finally, when all seemed lost, Sarah herself crushing the metal monstrosity underneath a hydraulic press._

"-right back to the source, maybe even the head project leader." Derek finished.

"What?" Sarah asked, pulled suddenly out of her memories and catching the tail end of Derek's statement.

"Were you even listening to me?" Derek questioned, rolling his eyes as he perused more of the Cyberdyne finances. I said if we look over their fiscal statements and check them against the robotics department's advancement expenditures, we might find some hiccups that could lead us right back to the source, and maybe even the guy in charge of the Skynet project if we're lucky.

"Oh," Sarah expressed, a little surprised that Derek had thought of doing that. So often she viewed him as a cut and dry soldier, and she had to constantly remind herself that he wasn't just a point and shooter. He was just as good at analyzing the angles as she was, maybe better. "That's a good idea Reese," Sarah told him.

A smirk played across Derek's face, disappearing as quickly as it had appeared. Even if he didn't approve of the way Sarah was reacting to John's fondness for the metal, he couldn't help but feel good hearing praise from her.

"However," Sarah continued, causing Derek to look back up at her, "I think I have a better one. I'll have John take care of following the money trail, after all he can do that a lot faster online than either of us. As for figuring out what is going on at Cyberdyne, I have a job for you that could prove to be both quicker and more beneficial." Sarah winced, knowing this next part would be what either committed Derek to the mission or sent him off into a rage.

"I want you to go to Cyberdyne tonight and get the information yourself. Or, more accurately, con some employees while your partner discreetly collects the data. I've scheduled you two an appointment for 7:30 tonight." Sarah crafted her sentence carefully, knowing that the easier she eased Derek into the idea of working with Cameron, the closer the plan would be followed.

"Wow," Derek remarked, "you didn't want us to have much time for preparation, did you? And who are you talking about, partner?"

"Well, all I really need you to do is keep the employee busy and perform guard duty. You shouldn't have to worry about the rest." Again Sarah avoided his question about who was going with him, sticking strictly to the mission.

"What do you mean? Are you sending John with me, because I know he is faster when it comes to figuring out tech, but I don't need to be watching his back the whole time."

"No, Derek." Sarah sighed, then steeled herself for the worst. "I'm not sending you with John. I'm sending you with Cameron. She will-"

"What!" Derek exclaimed, jumping up out of the chair so quickly that it tipped over and fell onto the floor. "You've got to be kidding me!"

"Well, I'm not." Sarah responded, raising her voice to match his. "You know that she is the best of us when it comes to infiltration and info gathering. If what we're looking for is there, she'll find it."

Derek blinked, then bent over to pick up the chair he'd knocked over. "I guess you're right. It does have some use." He sat down, this time sitting in the chair with his back against the back of the chair. "What do you have in mind? And don't leave anything out, I don't want any surprises."

Relieved that Derek was willing to stick to her plan, even if he wasn't happy about it, Sarah was ready to reveal the rest of her plan to him. She lifted the scattering of papers and pulled out the building schematics from beneath. Handing them to Derek, she spoke, "You and Cameron will arrive tonight for your appointment in the guise of a couple looking-"

"It gets even better," Derek remarked sarcastically, throwing his hands up in the air.

"-looking to invest in stocks from the company," Sarah continued. "You will direct the majority of the conversation, commanding the employee attention towards you while Cameron sneaks off to the secure room on the basement floor. There she will gather any information they have on Skynet, and any other data that could help us combat it. The whole time, you will need to keep their attention on you so that no one notices Cameron's absence. When she returns, you turn them down and leave quickly."

"Oh," Sarah added quickly, "And I know how you get when you are around Cameron. But, for the sake of the mission, don't give them any reason to be suspicious."

"What, me?" Derek asked, grinning again. He knew there was truth to what Sarah said, but no amount of pressure on her part was going to make him accept that piece of scrap metal as anything more than a necessary evil. He sat at the table a moment, thinking the plan over in his head, looking for any loopholes or flaws. "I guess its pretty sound. I don't like working with the metal, but I know this is important so I'll go along with it. For now."

Derek stood up to leave, but Sarah put a hand on his shoulder to stop him. "Wait, there is one more thing."

"There's more?" Derek asked skeptically. "I can't imagine you left anything out with all that."

Sarah felt a smile play at her lips, and she started to laugh in spite of herself. "What, what's so funny?" Derek inquired.

"For the mission, you need to wear a business suit. I picked up one a few days ago, and I need to know if it fits you."

"And just when I thought it couldn't get any worse," Derek moaned. "Let me see it."

Sarah walked over to the closet nearest to the pantry, and pulled out a transparent garment bag with a black pinstripe suit hanging on it. Handing it to Derek, he sullenly took it from her and proceeded back up the stairs towards his room.

"Make sure you choose a tie that works with the suit," Sarah called up the stairs after him. She had a feeling she would have to help a few times before he would actually look the part. There was no way that Derek Reese, the full blown trooper sent back from the future, would have any clue how to successfully put together a suit.

"Then again," Sarah figured, "with Cameron's lack of fashion sense and John as her guide to dress shopping, Cameron will probably need some help from me too."

Sarah finished off the rest of her water, then walked over to the sink and placed the glass on the counter next to it. Leaning on the counter and looking out the window at the yard outside, she let the warmth and calm of the sun flood in, and she chuckled. "Oh boy, who would have ever guessed I'd be the one making the fashion calls?"


End file.
